Letters to the Editor
jared2
Published Letters: 222 Editor's Choice: 16
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Flight Attendants
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Given that the chances of a plane requiring an emergency evacuation are probably less than one in a million, I find it hard to accept that Fight Attendants are there for safety reasons. Isn't is much more accurate to say they are there to hand out meals and retrieve garbage from people immobilzed by the constrictive torture devices known as "seats"? If airlines were seriously concerned about safety during evacuations they would have to remove about a third of these so-called seats, but, as I said, the chances are one in a million. As for the "submissive Asian woman", it really is time we laid this myth to rest. Pose, grace, intelligence, self-discipline, and slender beauty are not to be confused with submissiveness. (Can you tell my wife is Asian?)
Patrick, in the past few months you have managed to offend feminists, gays and Jews. You must be doing something right. As for your interests, have you ever considered a career in fashion design or interior decoration? Seriously, you have a great eye for it as well as a good ear for language. And, you must admit, pilots are really just glorified truck drivers when all is said and done, just as Flight Attendents are glorified waiters/waitresses. Keep up the good work. As Wilde said, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about".
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Make him wait
[Read the article: Should I give my boyfriend the key to my apartment?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Make him wait another 30 years and you're both eligible for AARP. If he still wants you, it must be true love.
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Dishwashing
[Read the article: I clean green but the dishes don't gleam!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"There is a Buddhist idea that I read about somewhere that says that doing dishes by hand can be a type of meditation. One must mentally devote oneself completely to the act of dishwashing. The idea is to focus on the cleaning of each dish until done. Dishwashing is not viewed as a chore, but as an opportunity to devote oneself to doing a job correctly."
I devoted 20 years of my life to washing dishes by hand. I gave myself completely to the sacred act of washing dishes. It was not a chore, but a source of pleasure; of joy, even. It brought sunlight into my previously drab existence. I was relaxed. I thought of palms and olives. It was a new dawn. The tide had turned. Then I went out and bought the biggest f*&king dishwasher I could lay my hands on.
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Learning to be a natural
[Read the article: How Obama learned to be a natural]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I don't know enough about Obama, but I do know that one is either a 'natural' or one is not - you can't learn it, or become one through practice...the phrase carries its own definition."
It was immediately obvious to me that this headline "How Obama learned to be a natural" was meant ironically. The same way one might say "In politics, sincerity is everything - once you can fake that, you have it made". Is no one capable of reading with subtlety anymore? As for polititians being smug and arrogant, didn't one of Shaw's characters say "you know nothing and think you know everything; you are obviously destined for a career in politics". What else is new? I take it for granted that a politician is self-aggrandizing and power-mad. My only concern is for the policies he/she espouses, and whether he/she can actually promote them and implement them. Where does Obama stand on war, on universal health care, on reigning in the military industrial oligarchy, on climate change and peak oil? Who pulls his strings? What will he do to reduce wealth disparity in this country? As for Hillary, how could anyone vote for someone who voted in favor of the Iraq war - a war that may even exceed Vietnam in stupidity and waste? But to criticize Obama for faking being "natural" is to fall into the error of hopeless naivity, and to lose all claim on being taken seriously.
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Uppity
[Read the article: How Obama learned to be a natural]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, Salon writers are critized for using the word "stewardess", now "uppity" had joined the banned list. Pretty soon salon writers will have to have their stories pre-approved by the Vatican. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "uppity" as follows:
Above oneself, self-important, ‘jumped-up’; arrogant, haughty, pert, putting on airs. Cf. UPPISH a. 2d. a. attrib.
1880 J. C. HARRIS Uncle Remus 86 Hit wuz wunner deze yer uppity little Jack Sparrers, I speck. 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 Nov. 776/2 Grammy is living contentedly enough with an ‘uppity’ young creature named Penny. 1952 F. L. ALLEN Big Change II. viii. 130 The effect of the automobile revolution was especially noticeable in the South, where one began to hear whites complaining about ‘uppity niggers’ on the highways, where there was no Jim Crow. 1982 B. CHATWIN On Black Hill v. 28 He had a head for figures and a method for dealing with ‘uppity’ tenants.
b. pred.
1932 Sun (Baltimore) 23 Aug. 6/2 [She] could have plenty o' friends. The trouble with her is she thinks folks too common to bother with unless they're too uppity to bother with her. 1947 ‘N. SHUTE’ Chequer Board 68 They've been here alone too long, and they've got uppity. 1955 F. O'CONNOR Wise Blood v. 89, I reckon you ain't as uppity as you was last night. 1966 D. BAGLEY Wyatt's Hurricane i. 27 The Navy is trying to build up Cap Sarrat as a substitute for Guantanamo in case Castro gets uppity and takes it from them. 1973 P. WHITE Eye of Storm viii. 381, I came prepared to rough it... It's Dorothy who grows uppity if all the cons aren't mod.
Some of these examples are used in reference to African Americans; others are not. Last time I checked, Castro was not black. If it reaches the point where salon writers are afraid to use "uppity" and "stewardess" then I will have reached the point of finding better things to read.